Playing with blocks not only brings hours of enjoyment but also lots of great learning opportunities.
Motor development: Children develop large motor skills by lifting and carrying hollow blocks, stretching to put a block atop a tower, and returning blocks to the shelves when they finish using them. They refine small muscle skills when they turn an arch around to fit on the end of a rectangular block, set up animal and people props, and roll a ball or vehicle down a ramp. Hand-eye coordination: Building with blocks requires careful hand-eye coordination. To balance a tower, a child must carefully place blocks on top of each other. Likewise, putting a final decoration atop a construction requires balance and coordination. Math vocabulary: Teachers and parents can introduce words about spatial relationships: under, over, through, on top of, and inside. And, they can introduce shape-related words represented by the blocks: arch, triangle, rectangle, square, and cylinder. Architecture and engineering: To build tall and complex structures that don’t topple over, young builders apply principles of architecture and engineering, such as • Bases of structures must be stable • Structures must be balanced • Ramps are strong when they are supported • Columns can support arches and bridge spans • Tunnels will collapse if they are not built into well-supported structures • Long unit blocks and strong hollow blocks are best for framing foundations. |
AuthorMother of four, preschool teacher, herbalist, wholistic birth doula, midwife's assistant, nutritional counselor, and lover of play based learning. Archives
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